The Heart of the Gospel: ANOINTED MESSAGE on Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE Part 2.

WHAT IS TRUE, BIBLICAL MODESTY ? . . .
"Godly, Modest Women"

"Godly Modest Women"

Pagan Christianity
and
Reimagining Church

By Frank Viola and George Barna

RETHINKING CHURCHThe Eye-Opening BestsellersIn January 2008, Pagan Christianity rocked the Christian world. Yet it was only the first half of the argument. It was never meant to be a stand-alone book. In August 2008, Reimagining Church was released. It's the second half of the argument. Both books can be likened unto a puzzle. Pagan Christianity demonstrates that the picture on the box has been wrong, and that's why the pieces haven't been fitting together. Reimagining Church presents a fresh vision of the picture on the box that's rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Pagan Christianity is the deconstructive side of the argument; Reimagining Church is the constructive side. Both books go together, forming a compelling and insightful vision of the church after God's own heart.

A New Type of Preacher

By Dr. A. W. Tozer

The Gift of Prophetic Insight

Dr. A. W. Tozer

Picture of a Prophet

Leonard Ravenhill

The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name."The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him "Man of the year" when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, "has almost always been that of recovery."The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.

He has no price tags.He is totally "otherworldly."He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.He marches to another drummer!He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind.He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a "thus saith the Lord."He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment.He lives in "splendid isolation."He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!"His prophecies are parried.His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs
when dead.He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few "make the
grade" in his class.He is friendless while living and famous when dead.He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a
saint by posterity.He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds
the Bread of Life to those who listen.He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.He announces, pronounces, and denounces!He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.He talks to men about God.He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by
men.He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the
marketplace.He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar
recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or
that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our
national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not
practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty"
are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest
famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF
THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years.
Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day.
Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution.
"Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too, without a
nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound.
Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh
where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy
place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord
for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will
come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by
history.There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The
missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a
terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly.
The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him
too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern
theology and stagnant "churchianity."Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do."Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself-
righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself
but only that which will move men to God.Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where
he has received the order of the day.Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the
millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a
visionno man in this century has seen.

God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

Kathy A. Smith continues her exposï¿½ on why not all Bible versions are
equal.

Was Christ Really God?

HERE is the CORRECT BIBLICAL and THEOLOGICAL position on this
extremely vital and controversial issue:JESUS WAS [and IS} 100% GOD as touch His Deity,and 100% Man as touch his humanity.THE PERFECTand Divinely-orchestrated UNION of GOD and Man.JESUS IS ONE with THE FATHER, and ONE with THE HOLY SPIRIT: Co-Equal,
Co-Eternal, Co-Creators and Sustainers of all that is or ever shall be.

Please see the excellent Bible-study below . . .

The Deity of Christ

A Biblical Study of the Divinity of Jesus ChristPastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

GRACE & TRUTH

content:A few excerpts from Randy Alcorn's very thoughtful and beautiful
book,

THE GRACE AND TRUTH PARADOX . . .

" Some churches today embrace truth but need a
heavy dose of grace. Other churches talk about grace but cry out for a heavy
dose of truth. "

~~~ ACHIEVING BALANCE ~~~

The apparent conflict that exists between grace and truth isn'tbecause they're incompatible,but because we lack perspective toresolved their seeming paradox. The two are interdependent. Weshould never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or graceexcept in a spirit of truth. Jesus wasn't 50 percent grace, 50percent truth, but 100 percent truth.Truth-oriented Christians love studying Scripture and theology anddoctrine. But sometimes they're quick to judge and slow to forgive.They're strong on truth, weak on grace.Grace-oriented Christians love forgiveness and freedom. Butsometimes they neglect Bible study and see moral standards as"merely legalism." (which it is not).
They're strong on grace,but weak on truth.Countless mistakes in marriage, parenting, ministry, and otherrelationships are failures to balance grace and truth. Sometimeswe neglect both. Often we choose one over the other.A paradox is an *apparent* contradiction. Grace and truth aren'treally contradictory. Jesus didn't switch on truth and then turn it offso He could switch on grace. Both are permanently switched onin Jesus. Both should be switched on in us.What would Jesus do? There is always one answer:He would act in grace *and* truth.Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisonsthe church and pushes the world away from Christ.Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps peoplefrom seeing their need for Christ.Attempts to "soften" the gospel by minimizing truth keep
peoplefrom Jesus. Attempts to "toughen" the gospel by minimizing gracekeep people from Jesus. It's not enough for us to offer grace OR truth.We must offer both."

~ Randy Alcorn, THE GRACE AND TRUTH PARADOX, pgs.15-18

And here's a classic: an excerpt from page 29, same book:

~ THE COST OF GRACE ~

"Hounded by the Pharisees, betrayed by a friend, forsaken byHis disciples, brutalized by police, beaten by His inquisitors,led in disgrace to a rigged trial.Arrogant men sitting in judgment over Him, crowning Him withthorns, mocking and disdaining. Beating Him without mercy, nailingHim to the cross, the worst and most shameful of tortures, stretchedout between two common thieves.Miserably thirsty, utterly forsaken by His Father for the firsttime in eternity, ... the picture of complete
aloneness.Hell on earth ! Not just one man's hell, but the hell
of billions.At any moment - in a millisecond - He could have called legionsof angels to deliver Him and destroy His enemies. Instead, He bearsforever the scars of sin, rebellion, mockery, and hatred...theglorious scars of God's grace toward us. "

" The cost of redemption cannot be
overstated. The wonders of grace cannot be overemphasized. Christ took the hell
He didn't deserve so we could have the heaven we don't deserve. - THAT was the
cost of GOD's Grace toward a fallen race. "

THOUGHTS AND PROVERBS TO LIVE BY

1) “This too shall pass.”2) “PRAISE GOD ANYWAY!”3) Love is always the right response.4) You can disagree without being disagreeable.5) EVERYONE has a right to be wrong now and then.6) PRAY FOR WISDOM: Know what not to compromise, and how and when
to be accommodating toward others.7) PRAY FOR WISDOM: Know when and how much to give, …
and when to withhold from the thief or the leech.8) Better to be wronged than to be the one who wrongs.9) Speak less and say more.10) “DO YOUR BEST, AND LET GOD DO THE REST.” … He has a perfect plan and
Will. Learn to see it and follow it.11) Whatever else you may do:determine
to be courteous & kind to others.12) Love is not blind, just marvelously tolerant.13) True courage is Grace under pressure.14) Remember: GOD ALWAYS has the last word.15) Whatever you do: never, ever, ever “deify” your own opinion.16) GOD ALREADY KNOWS ALL ABOUT IT: so don’t sweat it.17) Here is the one proverb we all need most to memorize: “Pride goeth [not only] before a fall; … pride goeth before destruction.”18) HERE IS WISDOM: your personal, racial, family, religious, and
nationalistic PRIDE is absolutely, positively one of THE WORST ENEMY you
have in this life, …
and it is the one thing most likely to damage your relationships with others
and with GOD. GET RID OF IT. (!)19) “GOD knows how to humble the proud.” … so let Him.20) Humility is to purity what warmth is to sunshine.21) BE HUMBLE or you’ll stumble. *See proverb #18*22) Seek always to be discerning, … but not
judgmental or condemning.23) Only correct others when truly necessary, …
and even then: be gentle, but firm.24) Leave all vengeance & judgment TO GOD. He’s the only one with
all the facts, understands the motives involved, and THE ONLY ONE with the
Divine Right to Judge anyway.25) All those who claim Christ as their Saviour, … but reject Him as
LORD are in grave danger of being found to be *living a lie.* “Believe on THE LORD Jesus Christ: and you shall be saved.”

A Thought Poem

(help for the hollow men)Did you ever notice how everyone tries to “prove” how “right” they are about
many things they do not actually know with real certainty.
?Truly, this is mostly mere foolishness and vanity.we know that we are mortal and we die.we know we have this guilt and emptiness inside.we are the hollow men. let’s admit it.and only women and children, … and GODseems capable of filling the deep, deep, and unavoidable void.We are the hollow men. searching for some meaning
and significance in a world gone mad
with self serving lust that utterly defiles all that it touches such that all
that should Be is pitifully tarnished and twisted beyond recognition.We are the hollow men. Who or What
will change or transform this awful aching alienation?We who secretly fear utter aloneness more than death.What can be done for us?TO WHOM shall we go?Suddenly, a thought, - a hope beckons at a near yet transcendent distance:A Thought, - A Voice:“your Home, your Shalom was lost long agowhen you decided that your will would be your own god.”– “that you would have a dream,- an existence outside of and apart from Me,”said The EternaL One.“Return to MeAnd I Will fill your voidWith Hope & Truth & Love & Reality:For I AMThe Life, … The Way,The Truth That Lives Forever.”all else,
- all else is but a vain and passing shadow of flickering lights…and
chasing after the wind…Again He spoke,“you do not know (nor truly understand) what you think (or profess) you knowUNTIL you have come to a Knowledge of MeThrough surrender
To The only I AM.“your” “i am” will not Be, but will ceaseUNLESSyou find and rightly acknowledge Me.”said The LORD YahOvah-GOD.“man without GOD is a vain, - a tragic and very foolish thing.And so often: even the very religious miss Me,”said The LORD.A question for you now, my friend:What will you do? What will you say? When GOD, - The Measure of all, -The and Sovereign of the Universe, - calls you to account?
will you strut your stuff? will
you “mightily defend” yourself? and then tell Him “how
worthy” you truly are.” ?

Truly, will you even DARE to open your mouth before Him?
Pure, Radiant, unblemished Righteousness:

REALITY & TRUTH.
No pretense. No shadows. No excuses.

In THAT awesome Moment: will you have an Advocate to exonerate? …
… or a prosecutor to convict and condemn? … which will it be ?
Which will it be?

Long ago, The Perfect Victim and Substitute said, (speaking to all)
“no one comes to [is reconciled to] The FatherEXCEPT BY ME.” … no one.

Please understand the truth:
you don’t appeal to “your own” “innocence”
or “righteousness” or “your” “goodness.”
not at all.
you are a hollow man (with many excuses), …
And yet JESUS says, “Come unto Me.”
…
… and then He leaves the choice to you.

What will you do? What is your answer?your heart, … your very soul must give the answer.

THOUGHT POEM2

every life

Every life above the animal or the simple mere-nessof “exist” and nonexiststrives, - some poorly, some mightily, …some desperately and ruthlesslyto leave behind a memory and impactthat does not vanish like a morning mist, or a voicethat fades as a lonely cry in a distant & desolate canyon . . .most
live life without awareness or significanceexcept to add to the world’s sorrow, brutality, and vanity.Why is this? Why? this seeming incapacityto think, inquire, to see beyond the mere grasp of the moment ?Why? so many weeds and tares,so little wheat, … and even less fruitwithout the rot of pride or arrogance or vanity, … why?When and how does a man or woman become humanand something truly above the animal. ? … UNDERSTAND:Something must stir, - must awaken deep within:to connect with a noble longing and desire…“i am more and meant to be more than this crazy, maddening, vainand utterly earthbound life.”“i would sing with the stars and soar with the eagle.”“i would be and do all i can to make this world a better placefor body & soul, … then lay me down to rest in Jesus, Who in Himselfmade the way back to GOD and Paradise.

~ AFTERWORD ~Wise & Wonderful Is The Jesus I Love.He does not condemn or control. but He Is Strong to require the Right and the good.Strong to lead & guide & correct. . . .O thank GOD He cares to correct us (and protect us & deliver us)! from our foolish and wrongful ways.He chastens in Love.He wounds, He binds up our wounds.He comforts, … then shows a much better way.Why? why stray? from a Shepherd Who loves your soul as no other would or possibly can?foolish heart, return to your first Love.He awaits with loving, wounded, outstretched hands,… saying softly,

“I gave My Life for youthat you might Love & Live in Me.”Jesus, sweetest, strongest, and dearest of all:i love You.i always shall.You are The Head & The Heart of Life itself.Tho You are yet despised & forsaken by this world:i will love You, my Lord & my King,to the end of Time.Len Hummel12/28/2008

Why I Believe In God

By Winkie PratneyI believe in Godbecause I am a child of the age that asks of life, ' Why? 'so I walked a road of honest reason, searching,to find each answer pointing like light in His direction.I needed a pathwayI reached for realityI hungered to live —And, in truth, He was closer, - far closer than I
dreamed.I believe in God.Each day this world declares Him;His wisdom stamps each snowflake, ' Made in Heaven ' !In the fresh chill of each new daythe air is alive with His closeness.I feel His sky flare blue in praises above me,watch a warm wind running ripples as if He breathes acrossa field of glorious green;I grip the good earthand feel its rich and fertile river cry,' He lives! 'How can I help but believe?I believe in Godwhen something deep within cries outthat I am not a mere child of chance,a lucky freak that somehow grew unguidedfrom mud without a mind.I believe in Godfor I am more than chemical change.I am a man —I knowI feelI liveand loveand He Who made me in His imageis worthy of my worship.I have known God's nearnessfor I have feet of clay and there are timeswhen none could see if I should choose the wrong,but when some sin would be so simpleand I feel it strangely to fascinate,Someone rightly and ever seems to be there;A Someone Who puts me on my honor;Someone Who dares me do the difficult —and no one is with me, my friend, no one … but God.There is one Book that speaks to me of God;it struck deep within my beinga sacred flame that did not and cannot die.This Bible tells of other men who felt as lost as Iwho came with childlike trustand found He did not lie.Is it so hard to believewhen we all record the day He cameto cut our time in two?Who else but Jesus showed us God made flesh,the perfect Man who cannot be denied?What other launched a life like Histo lift this world in light and love,then cheated death to send us power from on high?And nowwhen earth-men walk among the starsI know that the Creator entered and walked my world.Yes,I believe in Godfor I have watched the men who do not care to own Him;I've seen, with sickness, the little lives wrapped up in foolish pride,with faces marked for all the world to see their sin, who(just as did I also)run from holy lightor tried to hide their selfish lives beneath a thin shell of right.Oh, stand them once by a man who walks with God — and see!Yes,I knew men who said there was no God;but I listened carefully as they diedand I knew full well that they had lied.Say I am too young to be so sure,but I am old enough to feel and see my generation's agony,its brokenness and barrenness,to watch it waste with fear and war and strife.Yet I have also seen from every tongue and tribelike springing grain amid the sterile stone,men come alive to live in love,to share and care beneath Christ's cross……and if you saw their smiles within you'd know whyI believe in God.The day that I stopped running, this God found me.Empty, trembling,shaken with guilt and shame I came.In a way I cannot possibly draw with wordsHe loved meforgave merestored and released me…Then gave me His own precious Name.Say what you will, or mock if you mustbut He met me then and there,and put in my hearta homesickness for heavenand to be with Him forever.And I have heard the still, small VoiceOf Love and Guidance and Eternal Truth…And today I call Him Friend.Oh yes:I believe in God, - my Redeemer, Saviour, Friend.~ A Poem & Testimony by Winkie Pratney, pastor & Bible Teacher ~

CHOOSE WISELY . . .

Early this morning I was meditating on the Word
and the LORD inspired this poem I would like to share . . .
I hope you enjoy it . . . Len

CHOOSE WISELY . . .Time & toil & trouble & testing…yet Life is exuberant, brimming !with joy! and wonder! . . .but where? why? & how? did this darkness descendlike a cloud and a claw in the soul. somewhere in Time, … near the beginning of Time…back, back, back where the seed first sprang forth:we all fell for the greatest and most insidious of lies:“turn away from The Creator! …
and be your own god.” !THERE was Light & Love betrayedand Man covered with cold & lonely darknessof his own making.Light Is Love with freewillwilling to both understandand obeythe invariable boundariesof moral choice.UNDERSTAND:you are not, …we are not GOD.
we are His guests & creation.we are not robots, …but we must not be rebelswho would defy & defile.Choose wisely:
Choose very wiselyWhomyou will serve.

My favorite song chorus: enjoy:

I have decided to follow Jesus:

I have decided to follow Jesus;I have decided to follow Jesus;I have decided to follow Jesus;No turning back, no turning back.

Though I may wonder, I still will follow;Though I may wonder, I still will follow;Though I may wonder, I still will follow;No turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me;The world behind me, the cross before me;The world behind me, the cross before me;No turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, still I will follow;Though none go with me, still I will follow;Though none go with me, still I will follow;No turning back, no turning back.

Will you decide now to follow Jesus?Will you decide now to follow Jesus?Will you decide now to follow Jesus?No turning back, no turning back.